Cigarette package



April 17, 1934. c. H. MACKIE CIGARETTE PACKAGE Filed Feb. 17, 1952INVENTOR jzarlqrf flackz'a 3% '2 fil s AT Fatenteci Apr. I7, 1934 UNKTED STATES CIGARETTE PACKAGE Charles H. Mackie, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignorof one-half to Augustus L. Merolle, Brooklyn,

Application February 17, 1932, Serial No..593,600

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a cigarette package, being in the nature of animprovement upon the structure shown in my pending application SerialNo. 473,906, filed Aug. 8, 1930, which has matured into Patent No.1,894,221, Jan. 10, 1.933.

An object of the present invention is to provide a package having theadvantages of the package disclosed in said co-pending application andhaving the added advantage of providing means to permit vision of aportion of the cigarettes Within the package adjacent to the cigarettedischarge mechanism A further object is to provide improved c'ig arettedischarging mechanism.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific thanthose referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed outin the course of the following description of the elements,combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principlesconstituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplatedwill be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as a part of thisspecification, and in which I have shown merely a preferred form ofembodiment of the invention:

.Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette package constructed inaccordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal plane View takensubstantially upon the plane indicated by line II-II of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view substantially upon the plane of lineIII-J11 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially upon the planeof line IVIV of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 5 is a similar transverse sectional view taken substantially uponthe plane of line VV of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawing for describing in detail the structure'asillustrated therein it will be seen that the package is of ordinaryrectangular contour of the general proportions as common to ordinarycigarette packages adapted for containing a dozen or more cigarettes.The package is formed of paper or cardboard of appropriate thickness andconsists of top and bottom walls 1 and 2, opposite end walls as 3 and 4,and front and rear walls 5 and 6. The paper or cardboard from whichthese walls are formed may be cut, folded and gummed together in anyappropriate manner and it will be understood that a separate cover orwrapper of paper, cellophane or the like,

may be placed about the package to more effectually seal the contents ifdesired.

In the front wall as 5 there is formed an opening 7 of suitable size topermit lateral discharge of cigarettes from the package. Within thisopening is a suitable door having a front wall 8 and an inwardlyextending bottom wall 9 and opposite end walls 10-10.

This door is pivotally mounted at its opposite ends as at 1l1l upon theopposite end Walls of the package and it is of appropriate size toreceive and to support one of the cigarettes as 12, approximately asindicated. When the door is swung from its closed to its open positionit displaces the supported cigarette outwardly through D the opening 7so that said cigarette will drop out free of the package, the remainingcigarettes within the package being meanwhile retained by the bottomwall 9 of the door.

The wall 9 constitutes a cigarette supporting ledge for picking up anddelivering one cigarette each time the door is swung open.

The means by which to manually operate the door is the same in principleas is shown and fully described in my previous application above men-,80

tioned, that is it includes a single pull-thread as L extending betweenthe door and finger flap G at the rear of the package.

When a cigarette is to be removed the operator simply bends the flap Goutwardly with his fin- 8,5

ger, thus drawing upon the thread L and swinging the door open.

As a means of resiliently urging the door always into closed position,the present improvement proposes the use of a singleresilient tensionmember, such for instance as a small strip of rubber as H. This strip isconnected by its opposite ends with portions as 13-13 at the rear edgeof the bottom wall 9 of the door, said portions l313 being spaced apartsubstantially equi-distant at into connection with the portions 13-13.

The portions 13-13 are carried by the rear edge of the bottom wall orledge portion 9 of the door directly at the upwardly opening ends of thetunnel.

strip extending upwardly out of the tunnel and The tension of the stripH is such as to always hold the door closed. When the door is pulledopen by the thread L the elasticity of the strip permits the strip to bestretched sufficiently to accommodate full movement of the door.

It is noted that by this arrangement the elastic strip is normallyconcealed and entirely out of the way. Also that when the strip istensioned by opening movement of the door the full length of the strip,that is not only the end portions of the strip, is stretched, thusavoiding the imposition of excessive strains upon the strip.

It is also to be noted that whenever the door is swung open the endportions of the strip extending between the door and the tunnel endsconstitute two spaced guards or barriers across the opening between thebottom wall 9 of the door and the underlying bottom' wall 2 of thepackage, thereby preventing the possibility of cigarettes at any timebeing caught beneath the bottom wall 9 and blocking the door as the doorswings closed.

These barriers will extend from the rear edge of the Wall 9 downwardlyand will reach the bottom wall 2 of the package at points from which therear edge of wall 9 has just left. These barriers thus operate to closeoff only that portion of the bottom wall 2 of the package which liesdirectly beneath the wall 9. They at no time objectionably disturb anyof the cigarettes within the package, but merely serve to hold thecigarettes against rolling onto the portion of the bottom wall 2 beneaththe ledge or wall 9.

The bottom wall 2 of the package is preferably formed on its uppersurface with a channel as 16 for receiving the thread L between the doorand the finger flap G so that the thread will not rub frictionallyagainst cigarettes within the package.

It is a feature of the present improvement to provide means furnishingvisual inspection of the cigarettes at the discharge door 8, and to thisend the drawing herewith suggests that some or all of the front wall 5of the package above the door 8 may be made of transparent material,such as celluloid, cellophane or the like, thus furnishing a window as17 through which a good view may be had of the cigarette or cigaretteswithin the package adjacent to the door.

This window is useful in that it enables the operator to actually seeinto the package particularly at the time when he is about to operatethe door for discharging a cigarette. The window enables him toinstinctively note that a cigarette about to be discharged by the dooris in its proper position upon the door ready to be discharged. If hisglance at the cigarette shows the cigarette to be askew, or otherwisenot correctly in discharge position, he will instinctively jiggle thepackage so as to properly position the cigarette before opening thedoor.

Of course the window has the further advantage of permitting theoperator always to see about how many cigarettes remain in his packagefrom time to time.

As many changes could be made in this construction without departingfrom the scope of the invention, as defined in the following claim, itis intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shownin the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative onlyand not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:-

A cigarette package comprising top, bottom, side and end walls, one ofthe side walls having an opening of a size to permit lateral dischargeof a cigarette therethrough, the bottom wall having a tunnel formedtherein, a pivotally supported manually swingable discharge doornormally closing said opening, said door having an inwardly projectingledge which when the door stands closed overlies a portion of the bottomwall so as to support a cigarette for discharge when the door is swungopen, said tunnel having opposite end openings facing upwardly throughthe top surface of said bottom wall directly adjacent to the inner edgeof said ledge at points spaced apart in the length of said ledge, andmeans resiliently urging the door closed including a strip of elasticmaterial extending lengthwise through said tunnel having its oppositeend portions extending out of the opposite ends of the tunnelsubstantially directly upwardly to the inner edge of said ledge andfixed to said inner edge directly adjacent the tunnel ends thereby toconstitute when the door is opened barriers closing off only thatportion of the bottom wall lying beneath the ledge.

CHARLES H. MACKIE.

